As my senior year is approaching I have been thinking about plans post-graduation. It is terrifying. Everything about the restaurant business is thrilling, but also terrifying and uncertain. Do I keep working in kitchens until I learn more and get promoted to Sous Chef somewhere? How long will that take? How do I work in a business that has weird hours, long hours, and engulfs your life? How do I make sure my life revolves around the "other" things that I value - the Lord, my friends and my family, living my life - and not let the biz overtake my life? How do I work hard and not be so exhausted at the end of the day that I don't even have energy for the other things? I know these are questions that people in every field face, so it is not a new struggle.
So with all of these questions have also been ideas, and thinking through how to pursue this career with a 4-year degree in hospitality management and no degree or certificate in COOKING, which is what I want to do. I am not regretful for spending 4 years getting my B.S., but I do fret over the costliness of culinary school and whether or not it will be worth the money (will it pay me back?). I get mixed reviews. Some say yes, do it. Others say no, it's the business that teaches you and the hands-on. Obviously both would be ideal, but if I don't have upwards of $75,000 sitting around in my savings account then what do I do? I would prefer the comprehensive nature of culinary school and the variety of instructors; however there is a long long list of CIA grads who are jobless.
So I have decided to start where I am. Where I am is working in a great kitchen, where I am is stuck with one more year of undergrad, where I am is money-poor and unable to consider the possibility of culinary school at least for today. I went to the public library yesterday and checked out 5 books to start flipping through: La Gastronomique (a classic and well-known culinary dictionary), The Food Lover's Companion (another culinary dictionary for the layperson), A Goose in Toulouse (a memoir on eating your way through France), The Man Who Ate the World (another memoir), and Slow Food Revolution (a book I keep coming back to for foundations in ethics). I am hoping with these few books to feel encouraged, to learn about food in the technical sense and in the empirical sense.
Any book suggestions? Culinary advice?
